The present invention relates to an improvement of a console apparatus of various kinds of machines such as a copying machine or a printer.
A copying machine is described as an example. A console panel of a certain kind of copying machine includes a display screen for displaying information related to the operation or the setting of the copying machine, a copying button for performing a copying operation, a stop button for stopping the copying operation, menu buttons for displaying the menus of various kinds of settings and various kinds of maintenance operations on the display screen and selecting buttons for selecting a desired setting or maintenance operation from the displayed menus.
Ordinarily, the content of a current main setting or a state capable of copying or the like is displayed on the display screen. When a user desires to set the number of copies, the size of copying sheets, or to carry out the maintenance operation such as the change of ink cartridges or cleaning of a printing head, the user operates the menu buttons. Then, the user switches the contents of the display on the display screen to a desired menu representation from a normal representation. Further, the user selects a desired setting value or starts a desired maintenance operation by operating the selecting buttons or the like.
As described above, when the user displays the menu representation on the screen to carry out the operation such as the setting or the maintenance, the user may possibly desire to complete the above-described operation and perform a copying operation instead thereof. In this case, the user may not possibly see how to operate buttons. Further, during the operation, the user may not know how to carry out the operation from now on during the operation, and accordingly, the user may possibly begin to read an operation manual. In any case, the user unaccustomed to an operating method consumes a wasteful time.
As one countermeasure of this problem, when a predetermined time passes without further operation of buttons by the user during the setting operation using the menu representation or the like, a method is employed that the display screen is automatically returned to the original normal representation from the menu representation. However, in this method, when the user reads a manual during the setting operation, the screen is disadvantageously returned to the normal representation during that time so that the user needs to perform again the setting operation from a beginning.